Trump’s Pentagon presents ISIS plan that looks much like Obama’s. Kurt Eichenwald on how Donald Trump is fueling ISIS. What ISIS fighters think of Trump: The president has given terrorist groups a propaganda victory beyond their wildest dreams. Al Qaeda propaganda is using Steve Bannon’s Islamophobia against the U.S. Al-Qaida puts Steve Bannon on the cover of its official newspaper. “Our readiness for a terrorist attack is dangerously low”: Richard Clarke, a former counterterrorism adviser to three presidents, says, “I’ve never seen anything quite like” Trump’s approach to national security.

Kay Mathiesen and Don Fallis (Arizona): “The Greatest Liar Has His Believers”: The Social Epistemology of Political Lying. Trump’s worst enemy is his own big, lying mouth: The FBI, NSA, Germany, Britain, Australia — is there anybody America's dissembler-in-chief can't alienate? Trump’s lies are failing him, and it is making him deeply frustrated. Donald Trump “records morning shows he misses so he can watch them before bed”. Donald Trump is not having fun: Katy Waldman on a portrait of a sad, angry president. “He’s deeply, deeply insecure about how he’s perceived in the world, about whether or not he’s competent and deserves what he’s gotten”: Why letting go, for Trump, is no small or simple task. The emigrants: From a letter written in 1905 by Friedrich Trump, Donald Trump’s grandfather, to Luitpold, prince regent of Bavaria.

Kimberly Gross and Ethan Porter (George Washington) and Thomas Wood (OSU): Presidential Debates in the Age of Partisan Media: A Field Experiment. Russia "trying to oust Angela Merkel by inciting unrest against refugees in Germany". Tillerson plans to skip NATO meeting, visit Russia in April (and more and more and more and more on "Trump's Diplomat"). Tillerson refuses to rule out nuclearization of Asian allies. "Untalented" crime writers respond to their No 1 critic: 13 thriller writers take William O'Rourke to task for dismissing them and their readers. For more than two decades, Rebecca Solnit has been a favorite of the literati: Penning exquisite essays that move between the political and the personal, the intellectual and the earthy — then came "mansplaining".

Neil Gorsuch is not Another Scalia — he's the next John Roberts: Gorsuch puts a handsome face on an ugly ideology. Sorry Neil Gorsuch: American judges are just as partisan as everyone else. Gerald Dworkin reviewsThe Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia by Neil M. Gorsuch.

This is what you need to know about government surveillance: Henry Farrell interviews Jennifer Stisa Granick, author of American Spies: Modern Surveillance, Why You Should Care and What to Do About It. So there was an FBI wiretap in Trump Tower: Josh Marshall on Donald Trump, GoodFellas edition. The Nixonian strategy behind Trump's Obama lie: The president's stubborn wiretapping claim is a way to shore up support from his Republican base. Nancy LeTourneau on when right wing media goes from being GOP propaganda to intel source. The FBI probe into Trump and Russia is huge news — our political system isn't ready for it.

If Trump is innocent, why is he acting so guilty? His reaction to FBI Director James Comey's testimony about Russian meddling was defensive and deceitful. John Dean, the former White House counsel to President Nixon who was charged for helping cover up the Watergate scandal, says he thinks President Trump's White House is "in cover-up mode". Comey disclosures leave Trump alone on island of conspiracy theories. Is Russiagate a conspiracy theory? Masha Gessen weighs in on Putin, Trump and what we should really be afraid of.

The Congressional Budget Office finds fewer Americans would be insured with G.O.P. plan than with simple repeal. Trump should worry more about what happens if the GOP health bill passes. Trump warns House Republicans: Repeal health law or lose your seats. Why Trump thinks passing a terrible health-care bill makes sense. Tierney Sneed on the 7 biggest cons in the GOP's Obamacare repeal pitch. Andrew Prokop on 4 ways the House health care vote could go down — including "in flames". Trump's penchant for vengeance casts shadow on health care vote. What if conservatives said what they really believed about health care? Ezra Klein on the health care debate we're not having, but should be.

Luis Andueza (King’s College): Value, Struggle, and the Production of Nature. Jason W. Moore (Binghamton): The Rise of Cheap Nature. Benjamin Kunkel reviewsThe Birth of the Anthropocene by Jeremy Davies; Capitalism in the Web of Life: Ecology and the Accumulation of Capital by Jason Moore; and Fossil Capital: The Rise of Steam-Power and the Roots of Global Warming by Andreas Malm. Ulrich Brand (Vienna): How to Get Out of the Multiple Crisis? Contours of a Critical Theory of Social-Ecological Transformation. Julia M. Puaschunder (New School): Sunny Side Up: From Climate Change Burden Sharing to Fair Global Warming Benefits Distribution: Groundwork on the Metaphysics of the Gains of Global Warming and the Climatorial Imperative; and Climate Policies with Burden Sharing: The Economics of Climate Financing.

Thread: “Going to say again: Putin or Trump don't actually need to have anything on the GOP Congress to force their complicity”. Who stopped McCarthy? Sam Tanenhaus on what the history of Republican infighting can teach us today. National Review in the wilderness: The magazine was famously “Against Trump”, now it's anti-anti-Trump, and increasingly pro-Trump — what does it stand for now? American Affairs, a new journal sympathetic to the president, makes an uneven debut. Best known for her turn on The Apprentice, Omarosa Manigault — a former Democrat turned “Trumplican” — now holds an important position inside the White House; her rise has sent black Republicans into an existential crisis as they find themselves trying to get a seat at the table. Thousands of furious Trump fans can’t stop visiting a website that pretends Clinton won.